Manual:Professional Development:Professionalism

Introduction to Professionalism
Professionalism. What does it mean? The dictionary defines professional as: “One who, by appearance, bearing and conduct represents himself and his profession in a manner worthy of respect and emulation.” So professionalism is the act of being professional. By looking and acting in a manner “worthy of respect and emula-tion,” individuals with different backgrounds, perspectives and world-views can not only coexist, but work to-gether to everyone’s benefit.

Express a professional attitude, display a professional appearance while conducting yourself in a professional manner and you will inspire confidence not only in yourself, but those who are associated with you. Converse-ly, if you dress and act like a slob, then just the opposite will occur. Just remember that your image reflects not only on you but also on those organizations and individuals that you associate with.

Professionalism in the “Real World”
Learning professionalism under the auspices of STARFLEET and the SFMC doesn’t necessarily mean that it will not help you out in the “Real World”. In fact most of what you learn here can be applied to situations and other aspects that are not even remotely connected to STARFLEET or the SFMC. How you look, conduct yourself, and even communicate have a great deal of bearing in both STARFLEET and the SFMC. Even if in the future you leave the organization the lessons that you have learned through this course can continue to help you.